Saturday, October 11, 2014

5:09 PM

MILWAUKEE -- U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Mary Burke’s supporters Saturday the Dem guv candidate is “working her heart out to build a future for the people of Wisconsin, for the people of this country," whereas Gov. Scott Walker "makes it clear he's here for the rich and powerful."

"The motto of the Republican party should be, 'I got mine -- the rest of you are on your own,'” Warren told a crowd at UW-Milwaukee. "I'll tell you, that's very much what Scott Walker has pulled Wisconsin toward.”

Warren, D-Mass., said the Great Depression taught America to invest in education and infrastructure to allow businesses to grow and provide jobs.

Republicans "turned us in a different direction" starting in the 1980s, Warren said, by "eliminating the rules for Wall Street (to) let them paint bull's eyes on the backsides of American families. They make billions and leave the wreckage behind."

"What Mary believes and what I believe is that we're here for democracy," said Warren, who hugged Burke and said the two had been talking "long before" Burke decided to run for governor.

“It speaks volumes that Mary Burke would appear with Elizabeth Warren, a bitter, hyper-partisan well known for her aggressive comments that have alienated everyday Americans and even members of her own party,” said Joe Fadness, executive director of the state GOP.

Burke told the crowd she'd fight to make funding for tech colleges and universities a priority in the state budget and would help ease student loan debt.

It's not enough for Walker to simply freeze tuition in the UW System, Burke said, noting that Walker "cut $250 million out of our UW System and set our technical college funding back to 1989 levels."

Burke said she will make student loans tax deductible and would increase tax tuition deductions. She would also propose creating a refinancing authority.

"There's no reason for the hundreds of thousands of people in this state who are paying off their student loans to have interest rates of 6, 7, 8, 9 percent, when the state can actually borrow at a much, much lower interest rate," she said.

Reporters were told there was no time for questions either before or after the event. Warren also tweeted about a stop in Waukesha this morning to rally canvassers for Burke. The stop was not on the advisory sent to the media.